Little things that make a difference, like pulling out the drawer below the toaster and dumping it. You can also turn the toaster upside down and dump out crumbs into the garbage while jiggling the knob. I use a damp cloth with some Windex to clean the outside, but a very little dish soap works just as well.

The most common request, and biggest expense, in a move out cleaning is the Refrigerator, and Stove. As a regular house cleaner it’s hard to clean a refrigerator because in order to clean well you need to shut the refrigerator off. You leave the doors open for a while to let the cold air escape, that goes quickly, remove all the shelves, then wipe down the entire interior with a warm damp rag, rinsing frequently. The shelves, and drawers, you can wash in the sink, and set aside to drip dry a little. You finish by spraying down with Windex and wiping, drying, with a couple of dry rags. Then to shine it you spray it again with the Windex, and use paper towel to dry. Put the whole thing together again, drying the shelves and drawers as you go, and spot clean with Windex and paper towel.

What I really wanted to write about is self cleaning ovens. It would be a short article because really there is nothing to do. You pull the lever to lock the oven door, and follow the instructions on the front of the stove.

That’s it, and you should do that probably twice a year. It takes about two, or three hours. I suggest, if you use your oven, many people don’t, to turn on the fan in the kitchen, and open windows. The smell gets to some people, and they leave the house. I would stay long enough to be sure the process is working.

I would go into the cleaning skill of spray on oven cleaners, but we run into very few ovens any more that don’t have the self clean feature, that is usually extremely under used. The other thing is that those caustic chemicals in the spray on cleaners can damage the finish in a self cleaning oven. We do see where the finish has been dulled.

I guess I will do a separate article on cleaning a residential stove, because we do have tricks that make to whole process less daunting than many people make it out to be.

We had a mishap this week with a one time cleaning we were doing. The unit had all Viking Equipment, Stove, Range Hood, and Dishwasher. The sink was also commercial Stainless Steel, it had the hard corners that commercial kitchens like for dish washing, it gives more room at the bottom.

The new owner of the unit wanted us clean before they moved in. Units were lightly used. The next day she called us back in because she found some things that were done badly. One was the travertine in the bathroom, which is a story for another article, the other was the Range. The range had caked on grease that had softened but didn’t removed, it just kept smearing.

The woman was very nice about the whole thing, which I appreciate, while making some excellent points I never thought about. Number one is that those commercial ranges have this elaborate set of galvanized, and stainless steel underneath that requires a lot of time to address. Second is that in a commercial kitchen they have some one to clean the stove every day, most home owners don’t. Last is that the finish may be baked enamel but she could see that it was scratch, not by us, but before. As it was cleaned, by me, again, the scratches became more noticeable.

Just as an aside I have cleaned commercial kitchens before and usually it’s a mess that falls onto the floor. Crumbs, baked on grease, all the little nooks, crannies, the chemicals, and water cascade onto the bottom pan and get wiped out. Even at that the stove looks used. That’s just a part of the deal, and in some kitchens, like country kitchens it’ a good thing, in others, it’s just inappropriate.

We cleaned a new construction today, but I was concerned that the carpet cleaner was ill equipped for the job. He brought in a portable cleaner that you see in hotels, or apartment complexes. The new home owner was the one who contracted with us, and the carpet cleaner. The builder wouldn’t have taken the risk.

You need enough suction to extract as much moisture out of the carpet as possible. If the moisture stays in the carpet for an extended period of time it will attract more dirt, create a breeding ground for bacteria, and possibly lead to a mildew smell, especially here in the pacific Northwest.

In an earlier post I talked about how many truck mounted carpet cleaning companies there were, they are plentiful, and cheap. This guy, by the way, was about the same as a truck mounted service. His equipment was in good condition, but hardly what you would want in your home.

Today I bid to clean about 2800 square feet of new construction that was really pretty immaculate. It needs a lot of dusting. Another company bid $600. They are billing at $50 per hour per person, and work in teams of three which is fine, but they pushed the envelope with the time. They have a 4 hour minimum.

On a place I bid about a month ago another company quoted $42 per hour, but wanted a total of 10 man hours. There was nothing there, the place had been empty for about four months, and was cleaned, obviously, at one time, the place was just looking tired.

Now to be fair, there is a higher rate for one time cleanings, $36 to $42 per hour has been a going rate for some time. Going to $50 per hour in hard economic times is a stretch. We know that the cleaner’s wages haven’t gone up that much. What I’m more surprised about is the time.

In my opinion, I have a better sense about bidding than most companies that use a formula. I can pretty accurately figure out what a task will take. Refrigerators, bathrooms, whole house vacuuming , all take about one person an hour. Dusting, organizing, kitchen counter tops, and cleaning floors are more variable.  

I’m going to speculate that it is harder to find cleaners who are fast, and good in today’s market place because there are so many independents. Most companies who have large over head need to pay for offices, cars, equipment, insurance, and taxes. It’s made being an individual, or husband, and wife team much more attractive for the workers.

So it’s kind of odd, the times we are in, right now, that companies are raising rates, and independents are, in some cases, the better cleaning choice.

Your house cleaner gets to know almost everything about you over time.  A lot has been discussed about security, or how safe the belongs in the house are. People want to know who is coming into the home. A big question is if the same people will be doing the cleaning each time. Another question is about back ground checks.

Last week at a networking event the host asked me about any dirt I might have on one of our clients. He was joking, but there was a marked pause in the meeting, where people really wanted to hear something, some gossip. It is kind of a common passing comment.

My response, as always, is to praise our clients for the impeccable way they manage their lives. This particular client is extremely successful, and he makes a list each morning of the tasks he wants to accomplish, then checks them off during the day. The note book he carries is common knowledge, he has carried for the past twenty years.

Over these many years that we have been in the cleaning business I have learned that refusing to respond makes you sound like you are hiding something. Anything negative you say will of course be wrong. We have found that we do have an incredible set of clients who are remarkable, and sharing the success of their lives is something every one responds to favorably.

I never lie, or make something up, because that has negative consequences. It’s best to be forthcoming with some obvious virtues which leaves the questioner with no where to go.

One of the things people say about cleaning is to rinse, rinse, rinse. Floors are the number one item for that. I’m going to say that there is a difference between damp mopping, and wet mopping the floors. We try to avoid over wetting wood floors, but especially in high traffic areas it has to be done. In kitchens for sure you would wet mop in front of the stove, refrigerators, and sink be fore you damp mop the entire floor.

In the bathroom also, around the toilet needs to have more water before a disinfectant is used. When possible, if time allows, it is easier to go over a floor more than a couple of times. In most cases the attention you spend to the traffic areas will be enough, but if you are only cleaning the floor two or four times a year it’s worth it to do the whole floor more than twice.

For touching up the floor, which is what most people do, a flat surface mop that you use with a terry cloth cover works best. The days of the sponge on a mop handle are over. Those deposit more dirt than they pick up. O’Cedar makes the best system for this.

At the end, and beginning of the school year there is a shift. It’s a busy time of year for households, and cleaners. Especially here in Seattle people are also moving inside for the winter in September, or outside for the summer in June. The University has us cleaning out a spare bedroom, or cleaning a new dorm room, it’s the same for June.

Then you have the people who are selling a home, or deciding to keep it for another year. People moving into new homes, or out of homes they have sold are another reason for cleaners to be busy.

This article is about how you can get the best out of a cleaner in these times of the year. Some cleaners take on too many jobs. One of the purposes of this blog is to build a network we can refer to. So if you know you have a life changing event coming up it helps to book some cleaner time early. It’s also good to confirm your time as it gets closer.

The most important thing is for you to be flexible. Many companies are paying bills at these times of year. Taxes are due, the company employees, or contractors, also have kids, so we all want to help each other. It will all get done, it’s just a busy time of year.

This past week, after over twenty years in this business, it came to me that what we sell is trust. Anyone can clean well, or badly, but when you invite people into your home, give them a key, you are trusting them. I know it sounds like I’m completely stupid for just realizing this, but it has always seemed natural that people would give me the keys to their home.

To be fair to myself, most of our clients have come to us by referral. Some have found us in the local paper, but usually we have a common bond in the neighborhood. We are a small company with a limited service area. Today people look us up online, and we do have a good internet presence, so that helps.

I’m thinking, that is why so many people go with large companies. They trust the brand name, and that the brand name is thorough in back ground checks, and they know what they are doing. That is very true. Large, national companies do have procedures for getting people in your home you can trust. In another post I’ll explore the dynamic of large companies, but in the trust department many have excellent references.

What started me thinking about this is that we just discovered Angie’s List. Actually they discovered us. We got a good review, and they contacted us. As I researched the company, one of the things they are selling is a way to trust a service provider. After all these years of being in business it just struck me, that what all business people do is sell trust. In the business world it’s even called Blue Sky, there’s a term for it.

Now, I can’t tell you how to trust some one, or a cleaner in particular, but when you hire some one that is a big part of the equation. I guess in a future post I will give you a check list of what to ask for from a cleaner, and maybe that will help. In the mean time hire some one you are comfortable with, and you can put the person to a location you can trust.

Maybe once every six months or so, if you have tile in the kitchen or bath you could use a mild hydrogen peroxide wash for cleaning. Some people mix a solution with baking soda for the abrasion. On flat counters we some times dump the brown bottle of hydrogen peroxide along with a generous sprinkling of baking soda then work it in with a damp cloth. You can do the same thing in a bath tub or tub surround then work your way up the tile walls.

There are some cautions for this, such as don’t let is sit too long. When you rinse you have to rinse repeatedly. The residual will break down over time, but you want to make sure it’s rinsed. With some bleach solutions, and we will talk about that another time, you want to let the product sit to be effective. Hydrogen peroxide starts working right away, so the time you are working with it is enough time.

Don’t splash the peroxide around, it is a bleaching agent. Work it with the cloth. On the wall surfaces of the tub or shower surround you will want to saturate the cloth. Wear gloves, and clothing you don’t mind losing.

Now this is actually a good thing, as long as you are careful. I only brought it up because it is a step. In the long list of things you can do with your tile this is really pretty benign.